Rehearsal Schedule for the remainder of the year

We are down to our last three rehearsals of the school year!
We have a regular rehearsal on Saturday, March 28, and
conclude our Saturday schedule with rehearsals on April 18 and 25.
Our FVL Schools Band Program's Spring Concert will take place
on Sunday, April 26.

WSMA Concert Festival on Wednesday, April 1

Much information about our Concert Festival has already been
given in the past few Director's Updates, so I won't post that same
information. Please refer back to the updates from March 21
and February 28 for the full information.

Just a few reminders/updates this week:

Student dress - The Concert Winds will
NOT be wearing their formal vests and ties for the performance.
However, because this is a public performance, the students should
wear VERY nice clothes that day, such as skirts/dresses, dress
slacks, dress shirts, and ties (for guys who have them). We
want to look spectacular on that day.

Parent Drivers and Parking - Thanks again to
all of our parents and grandparents who will be driving students to
FVL on Wednesday! Your help is much appreciated. You
can drop off students at the East Commons Entrance, as they will be
going to the small gym upon arrival. After dropping off the
kids, please park your vehicles in the south lot (along HWY JJ) as
the east lot will be filled with student vehicles.

Parents and other drivers are invited to watch the performances
of the bands in the auditorium, as this event is free and open to
the public.

Our Concert Winds will be listening to the St. Martin Lutheran
Grade School Band perform following our performance. They
will be filling out a "Student Listening Form" provided by WSMA.
Once the St. Martin Band is finished playing, our Concert
Winds members will be excused. We will not have to remain in
the auditorium to listen to the St. Martin band's clinic. Our
students will be excused quitely, after which they will return to
the small gym to get their coats and cases and return to their
schools. I am anticipating that parents and students will be
leaving FVL between 11:30 and 11:45.

Performance Schedule:

8:15 AM Fox Valley Lutheran HS Symphonic Band

9:00AM St. Francis Xavier Middle School Band #1

9:45 AM St. Francis Xavier Middle School Band #2

10:30 AM FVL Schools Concert Winds

11:15 AM St. Martin Lutheran School

Congratulations to the following students for recently completing
lesson books:

We congratulate the following students who have completed a lesson
book and moved on in our series "Standard of Excellence". Our
lesson series contains three books, 1 (Red), 2 (Blue), and 3
(Green). We use the Rubank Advanced Method for students who
advance beyond Book 3 fo the Standard of Excellence series.

CDs available for EVC Honors Band Participants

I just received the concert recordings from our EVC Honors Band
and Choir concert held at Ripon High School this past January.
Each student who participated in the Honors Band will receive
a CD, which includes both the Honors Band and Honors Choir
selections. The CDs will be handed to the students on
Saturday at rehearsal.

Picture Day reminder

Picture day will be April 18. Parents, please remember to
check the photo package information at the link provided in the
March 21 update. Packages can be ordered online ahead of
time. If you are not able to complete the online order ahead
of time, our photographer will have ordering envelopes avaialble on
picture day. Also please refer back to that post for
information regarding student dress for that morning.

Upcoming Lesson Schedule

Due to the WSMA Concert Festival on Wednesday, April 1, Mr.
Neujahr will not be giving lessons at St. Paul and St. Mark Green
Bay, Trinity Brillion, or Shepherd of the Valley. Mr. Kramer
and Mr. Neujahr will otherwise have a full lesson schedule this
next week on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday as normal.

No lessons will be given the week following Easter, as most, if
not all, of our schools are on Easter/Spring Break that week (April
6 - 10).

Mr. Neujahr will not be giving lessons during the
following week, April 13 - 17. Mr. and Mrs. Neujahr
and daughter Johanna will be traveling to Columbus, Georgia, which
is the home of US Army Fort Benning. Son Joshua will be graduating
from Army Basic Training that week. After graduating, he will
be assigned to the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell, Kentucky!
We also made the trip to Fort Sill, Oklahoma when son Joel
graduated from Army Basic Training in 2005. Attending a
military graduation is somethng that all parents and family should
do when given the chance. Incidentally, son Joel is also at
Fort Benning currently, as he is completing US Army Officer
Candidate School. So in the span on one month, Joshua and
Joel will both graduate! We are going to try to attend Joel's
Officer Commissioning in Georgia the second week of May, but are
not exactly sure if we can make that trip. We are very proud
of our two boys for their service to our country!

Mr. Kramer WILL be giving lessons as normal during the week of
April 13 - 17. We are nearing the 24th lesson at every
school, so all students will receive lessons the last two weeks of
April. Depending on each school's number of lessons, some
schools may be visited yet the first week of May.

Welcome to Spring!

Finally! Our unusual winter has come to an end. We
are now in the last portion of our school year, and with that the
first few days of beautiful weather, robin sightings, and March
Madness!

We are down to our last four regular rehearsals for the year.
Our remaining schedule is as follows:

March 21 - Regular rehearsal
March 28 - Regular rehearsal
April 1 (Wednesday) - Concert Winds perform for WSMA Concert
Festival (info below)
April 4 and 11 - No rehearsal due to Easter and numerous Spring
Breaks
April 18 - Regular rehearsal and Band Picture Day (Info
below)
April 25 - Final rehearsal and band awards
April 26 (Sunday) - Cadet Band and Concert Winds Spring
Concert

2015 WELS Summer Band Camp - Heroes and Legends!

I have received brochures for the upcoming WELS Summer Band Camp
hosted by the Soli Deo Gloria Institute. This camp has been
offered for several years for WELS middle school band
students. We have had many of our FVL Schools Band students
attend in the past, and have all enjoyed the experience! The
camp will be held from June 21-26, 2015, and will take place at
Wisconsin Lutheran High School in Milwaukee, WI. The camp
offers many opportunities, including music rehearsals, devotions in
God's Word, leadership activities, visual and theater arts
experiences, Cool Waters Water Park, ice skating, among other
things.

The camp brochures were available at the attendance table at our
last rehearsal, and will be for the next two weeks (March 21 and
28), but please note that the registration and deposit is due by
March 31. Feel free to take one home and check out the camp
offerings, cost, and other information.

Picture Day Saturday, April 18

We will be taking time during our rehearsal for the
photos. We will be taking formal group photos in uniform, so
band students are to wear black shoes and socks, white shirts, and
black pants for the day. These items are the same as what
they wore to the November concert. To save time, they are
encouraged to wear these clothes for the rehearsal. We
will distribute the concert vests on that morning.

Our Photographer will be from Pinnacle Group Photography, and is
offering several different packages for purchase. It will be
up to you if you want to order a package or not. We do ask
that all band members wear concert clothes on that day even if you
may not purchase any photos, since we will be taking Cadet Band and
Concert Winds group photos with all students included.

Pinnalce Group Photography has given us a link to their website
for advance ordering of photo packages. We will have a number
of ordering envelopes available at the attendance table, but they
do encourage parents to use the online ordering system.
Please note our group photos are entitled "Fox Valley Lutheran
Middle School Band".

You will simply need to enter your email address to log in to
the ordering system.

Solo and Ensemble Results

Many thanks to our seventh and eighth grade students for the
fine performances March 7 at the EVC Solo and Ensemble Festival!
Our FVL Schools Band members did very well overall and
recorded 14 "First" ratings out of twenty-one events.
Needless to say, Mr. Kramer and Mr. Neujahr are very proud of
our students. Their work preparing an introduction and playing
their solo for this WSMA Festival has certainly resulted in
becoming stronger players and more confident musicians.

The students were given their Adjudicator Score Sheet during
their lessons. Although not necessarily suitable for
framing, this score sheet gives the students lots of information
regarding their performance, and has helpful information for what
they did well, and what they can work on to improve their playing
in general.

FVL Solo and Ensemble Results

FVL events also fared very well on March 7! In all, FVL
entered 44 events with the following results (summary of
events):

Class C:

2 events received a rating of 1

Class B:

1 event received a rating of 2

8 events received a rating of 1

Class A:

7 events received a rating of 2

6 events received a rating of 1

20 events received a rating of 1* (Advance to the State
Festival)

Overall, 36 events received a rating of a 1 out of 44 total
events! Events advancing to the State Solo and Ensemble on
May 2 include 14 solos and 6 ensemble events including the FVL Jazz
Ensemble, Brass Choir, Brass Quintet, Trumpet Duet, Clarinet Trio,
and the FVL Choraliers.

WSMA Concert Festival performance for Concert Winds

This concert festival will be hosted by FVL. By now, parents
from each school should have begun to plan car pools to FVL that
morning and back to your schools again following the festival.
Parents and students should also alert their school's
principals and classroom teachers of their absence from school that
morning.

The Concert Winds will NOT be wearing their formal vests and ties
for the performance. However, because this is a public performance,
the students should wear VERY nice clothes that day, such as
skirts/dresses, dress slacks, dress shirts, and ties (for guys who
have them). We want to look spectacular on that day.
Because of the logistics of getting all of our kids to FVL,
having to warm up and prepare for this festival, it will be easiest
to not wear our concert formal dress. Additionally, the other
schools participating normally do not wear concert dress for the
WSMA Concert Festival.

As this is a public performance, much like solo and ensemble
festivals, all parents/grandparents/drivers for the day are most
welcome to listen to the bands perform. It may be very
interesting for you to also hear what the adjudicators have to say
following each band's performance.

All of the band performances will be held in the FVL
Auditorium.

Here is a schedule of band performance times for that day:

8:15 AM Fox Valley Lutheran HS Symphonic
Band

9:00AM St. Francis Xavier Middle School Band
#1

9:45 AM St. Francis Xavier Middle School Band
#2

10:30 AM FVL Schools Concert Winds

11:15 AM St. Martin Lutheran School

The morning times for our FVL Schools Band students would be as
follows:

9:45 AM Arrive at FVL - Meet in the small gym with coats
and cases for attendance

11:15 AM Concert Winds listen to St. Martin Lutheran Band
and fill out student critique form

12:00 Noon Car pools return students to their grade
schools

You will notice that, depending on which school your child attends,
students will be returning to their schools either at the end of
their lunch period or after their lunch period has ended.
Students should plan on bringing a bag lunch that day that
they can eat on their return trip to their schools.

Congratulations to the following students for recently
completing lesson books:

Since the January 24 Update, we want to give credit to the
following students who have completed a lesson book and moved on in
our series "Standard of Excellence". Our lesson series
contains three books, 1 (Red), 2 (Blue), and 3 (Green). We
use the Rubank Advanced Method for students who advance beyond Book
3 fo the Standard of Excellence series.

Caitlyn Graham, Grade 7, Homeschool, Alto Saxophone -
Completed 1

Phil Machkovich, Grade 6, St. Paul Appleton, Trombone -
Completed 2

Emily Lillo, Grade 8, St. Paul Appleton - Completed 1 (Of
special note - Emily studied Oboe for three years, advancing to
Book 3, and switched to Bassoon at the start of this
year)

With our huge group of beginning band students this year, look for
many more students to complete books before the end of the year.
Those medals will be given out on our Band Awards Day on Saturday,
April 25.

Best Wishes to our Soloists this Weekend!

We wish God's Blessings to our 24 FVL Schools students who will
be playing their solos this Saturday, March 7, at Waupaca HS.
Mr. Neujahr and Mr. Kramer have both completely enjoyed
working with our students on their solos these past few months!
It is very rewarding to see the work our band members put in
on these challenging selections. The soloists will receive a
rating for their efforts on Saturday. These ratings are based
on rubrics that have been developed by WSMA. So these ratings
are based on a "standard", and not on direct competition with other
musicians. In addition, the rating the students receive is by
no means the most important aspect of their performance.
Rather, it is the "journey" - taking a challenging piece of
solo literature, putting in the time and effort to practice and
perfect it, and finally doing their very best on performance day!
All of our students are to be commended for their
musicianship!

Here are a few additional documents for Saturday that were
received after last week's Update was posted:

For much more participant information pertaining to the Solo
Festival, please refer back to the Director's Updates from February
21 and 28.

No Lessons at Mount Olive on Monday, March 9

Mr. Neujahr will be driving to Dubuque, Iowa on Monday following
the FVL HS Band rehearsal. The purpose is to pick up two
marching tubas and a synthesizer that FVL is purchasing from the
Dubuque Colts Drum and Buble Corps. The equipment will be
used by both FVL HS and Lutheran Vanguard of Wisconsin. We
have made many purchases from the Colts in the past few years,
including FVL's Vibraphone, marching Mellophones, and marching
Tubas. These are instruments that have been used by the Corps
for a season or two, so the purchase saves thousands of dollars
compared to the new price. Many thanks to the Colts for
making these purchases possible!